Offices Held

Biography

Goodere is commonly believed to have been born in India because of his father’s long career with the East India Company. On closer examination, however, it seems likely that he was born during his father’s extensive sojourn in England between 1656 and 1662. During two prolonged periods in India between about 1643 and 1656, and again between 1662 and 1669, his father rose from factor to second-in-command at Surat and eventually deputy-governor of Bombay. Upon his return to England in 1669 John Goodere set about buying a landed estate. His purchase of property at Burghope led him into conflict with Thomas Price†, who had him taken into custody for breach of privilege on 24 Nov. 1670, after Goodere had ejected some tenants. However, he eventually took possession of the estate. He subsequently bought £2,000-worth of stock in 1670 and was elected a director in 1670 and 1673.3

Edward Goodere was given the education of a gentleman and made a favourable match with the heiress of the Dineley family. Through this marriage he acquired a seat at Charlton in Worcestershire, only two miles north-west of Evesham. His father-in-law was regarded by James II’s agents as a fit representative for this borough in 1687, and when a new charter was granted in August 1688 Goodere himself was named as an alderman and justice (although the charter was subsequently nullified by James II’s proclamation). Nothing is known about his political activities during the 1690s. He may have spent most of his time outside Worcestershire, for Luttrell described a ‘Mr Goodyer’ as a ‘Herefordshire gentleman’ when describing the perpetrator of an attack on a man in a London playhouse. During the early years of Anne’s reign he was an important supporter of the Tory, Sir John Pakington, 4th Bt.*, in the fiercely contested county elections in Worcestershire. In January 1702 he was examining pollbooks for false votes cast in the previous election, and by April was providing malt for the next election’s entertainments. Although reportedly ‘storming’ in January 1704, because he had not received a copy of Pakington’s speech on the second occasional conformity bill, he was nevertheless ready to support Pakington and William Bromley I* in case a new election was called. Indeed, while acting as an election agent for Pakington in 1705, it was Goodere who warned Lady Pakington of the Whig scheme to hold the election in Pakington’s absence. A contemporary later recollected that Goodere was one of the gentlemen who led Pakington’s voters into Worcester on polling day. The same year he was elected anew as an alderman of Evesham. Thus, at the next election in 1708 he was well placed to offer himself as a candidate for the borough. Probably the crucial event in this process was the death of his father-in-law, which enabled him to utilize his wife’s inheritance for political purposes. Evidence from Dineley’s will to the effect that Goodere should not ‘intermeddle’ with his daughter’s estate suggests considerable mistrust, which may have thwarted Goodere’s earlier parliamentary ambitions.4

Returned for Evesham after a contest in 1708, Goodere was classed as a Whig on a list analysing the returns. Although this might seem an odd classification when placed alongside his consistent support for Pakington, it is corroborated by other evidence. In 1709, he voted for the naturalization of the Palatines and in the following year supported the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell. On 31 Jan. 1710 he told against a successful motion that the report of a place bill sponsored by Edward Wortley Montagu* should be received the following day: the identity of the other tellers indicates that he viewed the bill with disfavour; it might also demonstrate that he was first and foremost a supporter of the Court. In any case, the strength of his local interest saw him returned unopposed for Evesham in 1710. Indeed, despite his Whig record, he assured Pakington in July 1710 of his full support at the forthcoming county election and even played host at Charlton to Samuel Pytts*, the other Tory candidate. Although he was classed as a Whig on the ‘Hanover list’ there is no evidence of his political opinions in the early years of the new Parliament. However, the view that he had found little difficulty in accommodating himself to the moderate Tory politics of the new ministry is strengthened by the appearance of his name on Robert Harley’s* canvassing list of about January 1712, probably compiled with reference to the forthcoming attack on the Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill†). The two peers deputed to canvass his opinion were Lord Plymouth, to whom Goodere had offered his service in a letter of July 1710, and the Duke of Shrewsbury, who had a steward called Charles Goodere. The interpretation of Sir Edward as a moderate Tory is strengthened by the events of the 1713 session when he voted, on 18 June, for the French commerce bill, a measure that provoked many Tory defections into opposition, while ten Whigs at most backed it. Goodere acted as a teller once during this session, on 16 June 1713, in favour of giving a second reading to the Quakers’ affirmation bill. In doing so he may have been prompted by local political considerations, since Evesham had an important Quaker community: at least ten Quakers were admitted as freemen between 1697 and 1701.5

Goodere was returned again at the 1713 election and was classed as a Tory on the Worsley list. Very little is known about his activities in the 1714 session, apart from a tellership on 24 June against a motion to engross the Earl of Ranelagh’s (Richard Jones*) estate bill. Goodere was defeated at the 1715 election, probably because he was now perceived as a Tory. Indeed, when he returned to the Commons after the 1722 election it was on the Tory interest in Herefordshire. He died on 29 Mar. 1739.6